NHS Out of TTIP - Public Meeting on 19th March All Welcome

Aberdeen Trades Union Council has joined with UNITE, PCS, The People's NHS, Stop TTIP Aberdeen and the STUC to organise a public meeting on Thursday 19th March 7-9pm in the UNITE Offices at 44 King Street, Aberdeen AB21 5JT in the latest part of the campaign to keep the NHS out of TTIP.

Speakers will include Tommy Campbell of UNITE,  Yiorgos Kastalatis,  PeoplesNHS (Chair) as well as speakers from the ATUC and Stop TTIP Aberdeen. All are welcome to attend.

TTIP, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, is a series of trade negotiations being carried out mostly in secret between the EU and US. As a bi-lateral trade agreement, TTIP is about reducing the regulatory barriers to trade for big business, things like food safety law, environmental legislation, banking regulations and the sovereign powers of individual nations.

Tommy Campbell

Tommy Campbell said, "We need to be seriously worried about TTIP and we need to do all we can to let people know about the threat from TTIP.

"Since before TTIP negotiations began last February, the process has been secretive and undemocratic. This secrecy is on-going, with nearly all information on negotiations coming from leaked documents and Freedom of Information requests."

Brian Carroll of the PCS Union and the ATUC added, "Public services, especially the NHS, are in the firing line. One of the main aims of TTIP is to open up Europe’s public health, education and water services to US companies. This could essentially mean the privatisation of the NHS.

"The European Commission has claimed that public services will be kept out of TTIP. However, the UK Trade Minister Lord Livingston has admitted that talks about the NHS were still on the table.

"We must step up the campaign or we could see the wholesale privatisation of the NHS into the hands of big business over which we will have no control at all."

Tommy warned, "TTIP’s biggest threat to society is its inherent assault on democracy. One of the main aims of TTIP is the introduction of Investor-State Dispute Settlements (ISDS), which allow companies to sue governments if those governments’ policies cause a loss of profits.

"In effect it means unelected transnational corporations can dictate the policies of democratically elected governments."

Click here for more information on the wider threat from TTIP.